1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a dish-shaped cover cooking/frying vessels and the like, for instance a cooking pot or a frying pan, this cover comprising at least one aperture at its center zone, a hood forming a roof over the at least one aperture being held in place by an affixation means.
2. Description of the Related Art
The German patent document A1 33 11 247 already has disclosed such a cover which comprises a hood allowing completely or also partly sealing the aperture. This hood can be selectively used as a plug-on element and is fitted with a grip in the form of a knob. A special design of rim cams at the hood and projections at the edge of the aperture allows depositing the hood either by the rim cams on the projections, thereby providing venting the cooking/frying vessel during cooking, or depositing the hood rotated by about 45.degree. relative to the former position so it can be fully inserted into the aperture to prevent venting the cooking/frying vessel. This known hood therefore allows sealing the aperture completely or partly. Because the aperture is located in a cover segment lower than the top cover surface, fat or vapors dripping from the hood can return into the cooking/frying vessel. Therefore fat or vapors cannot drip on the outer cover surface and hence cannot drain toward the rim of the cover. As a result soiling the top cover surface by fat sprays from the cooking/frying vessel has already been extensively prevented. On the other hand this known cover entails laborious manufacture because of its complex shape and for the same reason it is cumbersome to clean. Moreover there is some danger of injury due to the rim cams being present at the hood, both when handling the hood and when cleaning it.
Furthermore, a cover for cooking pots and comprising a single cover component with several holes in a middle zone already is known from the European patent document A1 0 275 547. This cover is fitted with a screen upwardly spaced from the holes, thereby allowing free gas exhaustion but extensively preventing ejection of liquids such as splashes of fat and the like through the cover. This cover assumes a dish shape, the middle zone being lower than the remainder of the cover when in use, at least one permanent element supporting the screen. Again this cover entails very laborious manufacture and moreover cleaning can be carried out only after cumbersome disassembly of the screen and of the support. In this disassembly, screws must be loosened, and after the screen has been removed, there is danger from sharp-edged parts when cleaning the cover. Lastly a knob is mounted immediately above the screen and is used as a grip for the cover. On one hand there is danger that the screw connection shall be loosened prematurely when handling the cover and on the other hand the user practically can grab the knob only in a way that the user's hand must pass the hot vapor exit zone.
The German patent document U1 83 34 849 discloses a cover knob with controlled steam exhaust and fitted with a grip connected by a fastener to a latch. An anchor disk is mounted between the grip and the cover. The grip also contains a seat for the fastener. The latch is fitted with a sealing and rest surface supporting the grip, grip and latch being mutually irrotational. The latch comprises one or more radially running channels communicating with one another through apertures in the fastening means. Moreover the latch is mounted in a clearance of the anchor disk tightly enclosing the latch, where the disk is fitted at its periphery with seals closing and opening the channels. Again the manufacture of a cover knob with controlled steam exhaust can be made industrially only laboriously, and cleaning is exceedingly difficult. While the special array of the channels is intended to approximately guide the steam leaving the cooking pot toward the cover surface, bums, for instance on the user's hand, may occur, in particular in case of user carelessness.
Lastly a metal frying pan cover is known from the German patent document U1 89 04 779 which is designed with a central, circular aperture to exhaust steam. A screen curving inward and toward the center of the aperture is mounted above said aperture and projects by its rim a given distance beyond the aperture. The screen is affixed by several narrow supports to the cover. This frying pan is said to offer the advantage that soiling the range, or the cover by splashing oil fat etc. during frying will be widely averted because the splashes of oil, fat etc. reaching the screen will flow back on account of the screen's curvature toward its center and will drip from there through the aperture into the frying pan. Besides the fact that this known frying pan cover cannot retain all fat splashes passing through the aperture, cleaning the cover also is exceedingly cumbersome and time consuming. In particular the underside of the screen or shield is hard to reach, and because of the array of small brackets between screen and cover, danger of injury, especially when cleaning the cover, cannot be ruled out.